Music on the Edge
Beyond: Microtonal Music Festival 2025
Bellefield Hall Auditorium: University of Pittsburgh
Austin Wulliman: Escape Rites (World Premiere)
Mathew Rosenblum: Double keyboard quintet (World Premiere) with pianist Conor Hannick
JACK gives the world premiere of my new string quartet Escape Rites, the piece of work which dominated my last year. The piece explores a 25-note microtonal scale, with each note related to polyrhythms locked to overtone or undertone relationships and tied to extended techniques, inspired by the correspondence of John Cage and Pierre Boulez when they were completing their own quartets in the late 1940’s. The scale, its related rhythms, and associated timbres are both serialized and treated as material for traditional harmonic/contrapuntal elaboration.
“Activity involving in a single process the many, turning them, even though some seem to be opposites, towards oneness, contributes to a good way of life.” - John Cage